Swather or Sickle Bar Mower

[Rathpr]

We recently bought 10 acres and are growing orchard grass/timothy hay. We have had someone else cut, windrow and bale. We would like to start doing this ourselves but are new to this. We were thinking of getting a sickle bar mower, hay rake and baler to start (inexpensive) out but am thinking of getting a small towed swather (9 ft) instead and the baler. I have heard both good and bad stories about the sickle bar mowers. Does anybody have any advice? Thanks.

 

[zzvyb6]

By sickle bar, do you mean a "one arm bandit" mower that runs along side the right rear of the tractor and is trailered or hard attached to the tractor frame? And by towed swather, do you mean a trailered sickle cutter usually equipped with rubber and rubber + steel conditioning rolls? If so, then both will work great with your grass hay mix. Conditioning rolls aid in drying thick stemmed plants (usually alfalfa in my neck of the woods) and any other stalked plant. The useful feature of the swather is that you can swath with it (!) To me that means you essentially avoid the need to rake the hay into a swath or windrow if the air temperature is high and you have a few days of drying. Hay produced this way will generally look greener when baled because the underside of the swath will not get direct sun exposure (which bleaches it). There is some tractor time and fuel saved with this technique. If the days are not extremely warm, the swath can be side raked over a few feet onto a dry part of the ground. If done properly, the hay is turned over 180 degrees so that the bottom is now on the top. Thus, drying time is supposedly saved. Some will argue (perhaps rightly so), that the fastest and best way to dry the hay is to just lay it out flat (using either mower type) and then rake it into windrows when its dry. It can also be argued that the conditioning rolls beat the seeds out of the grasses, which is where the Wheaties are in horse, cow or goat terms.

The fact is for me, that when I cut and windrow, I get a better sense of whether I've gotten a plug in the cutter bar because it shows up in the trailing open path. Not so if I lay it out unswathed. I've used both types of machines, including the self propelled swathers and even a swing tongue haybine (NH499). I'm still using my NH 479 mower conditioner because of the conditioning and the swathing features AND the reel drive which feeds the cutter and helps keep the hay from plugging the cutter bar.

Ken Sweet sells both types of mowers and will probably chime in with some additional good advice. He can also probably tell you if there is such a thing as a 9' rear mounted straight sickle bar mower available for sale. There are some big differences in the cost of these machines (new and used). Some can now even be found heading to junk yards because people need money for food and fuel. It will al depend on your budget. Mower and baler are worth buying upwards. Rake? well maybe 1 step above junk on steel wheels has been known to do the job. My NH 55 does a better job than my Kuhn combo tedder rake.

That's my 2 cents based on having opportunities to borrow and evaluate many different types and brands of hay machines.

 

[sweettractors]

On 10 acres you may want to keep your machinery costs low. I farmed 150 acres of mixed hay for many years with a sickle mower before disc mowers were invented. No problems as long as I maintained my mower correctly. We have good reworked sickle mowers at $895 and up, new 4 wheel rakes for $1195 and good starter square balers for less than 1000 bales per year for under $1750. Ken Sweet

 

[Rathpr]

Thanks for the info. I think we will go with the sickle bar mower and hay rake and see how that works out. Too bad we are in Pacific NW, sounds like much better availability and prices in your neck of the woods. Older sickle bar mowers and rakes are hard to find and go quickly. In the last few months I have seen one older MF 36 rake for $800 and two or three sickle bar mowers for $400 to $800. Thanks again.

 

[D7E]

Swather and sickle mower are the same apart from the reel only that swather has canvasses to carrry the crop to the centre and make a windrow whereras a sickle mower will leave the crop as wide as the cut.
You can buy an old swather regardlesss of size now , if it`s not a auto fold for basically it`s weight in scrap. i have 2 x 18 foot macdon`s that will work that you can have for $100 each

 

[DJ54]

After getting my mower/conditioner, it has to be broken, before hooking up to the sickle bar anymore... If by chance I make hay later, like this year, and the Rye grass and Timothy is tall and windblown, it falls ahead of the sickle bar, and makes a mess... ( In fact, I hook up to my Bush Hog brand rotary cutter, with removalbe side, to finish cutting...) The reel on the mo/co pulls it into the cutter bar for a nice clean cut. And as mentioned, the rolls crushing the hay makes it dry faster, and in my opinion, more paletable for my horses...

And in the future, if it seems to be worth it to keep making your own hay, a tedder is well worth the money, if the window of opprotunity is narrow, as it can be here in Ohio, to get your hay dry...

 

[Dill]

I've seen lots of used sickle mower conditioners that are going cheaper than a 3pth sickle bar. You can usually find a pt7 in the 750 range and a NH haybine for 1500 around here.

 

[flusher]

We recently bought 10 acres and are growing orchard grass/timothy hay. We have had someone else cut, windrow and bale. We would like to start doing this ourselves but are new to this. We were thinking of getting a sickle bar mower, hay rake and baler to start (inexpensive) out but am thinking of getting a small towed swather (9 ft) instead and the baler. I have heard both good and bad stories about the sickle bar mowers. Does anybody have any advice? Thanks.

I growing hay on 6 of my 10 acres. My mower is a 7-ft MF-31 sicklebar that I bought at auction for $550. Add $200 for new sickle sections and rock guard/ledger plates. Rebuilt that mower three times so far and it still doesn't cut properly. My Christmas list now includes a 5-6 ft drum mower (about $3K new) that will solve all my mowing problems and be a snap to maintain compared to an old, rebuilt sicklebar.

Just remember, that towed swather, if it's a haybine, will have a 9-ft sicklebar doing the mowing that you'll have to maintain. If it's a discbine, mowing is done by a set of discs and the maintenance will be simpler but the initial cost will be larger.

 

[sweettractors]

Before we started mowing with a disc mower and discbine, I mowed 200 rocky acres per year with a 7 ft #31 Massey Ferguson mower with no problems and never did rebuild it. I would average stopping to clear the bar about 2 or 3 times every 10 acres. Ken Sweet

 

[Barry Bowen]

Making hay in a moist humid area like the Pacific NW is likely as challenging as doing it here in the Mid-Atlantic. I would never consider using just a sickle bar and rake as the chances of getting the right weather to get the job done are slim and none. A heavy first cut grass with out conditioning rollers and a tedder as well as a rotary rake would usually take 4-5 days to dry. With the right equipment it can be cut down to just 2 days usually, 3 at the outside. Equipment makes a HUGE difference. If you are doing this to save money, you will find out how expensive this really is. Better than getting your own stuff maybe find some one in your area for a year or two to make it for you and try to learn how it is done. You may change your mind, or you may decided doing hay is for you, but you can get your learning curve at some one else's expense. A small hay operation does not really save you any or much money especially by the time you count your time. Would your time be better spent working over time or taking on side work to just pay for the hay you need? Hint, if you are doing a small piece to try to make money, well I have a nice bridge for sale that you can charge tolls on and get rich off of. Or the other saying, how do you make a small fortune farming??? Start with a big one. If you truely love farming, if you eat, sleep and dream this stuff,it is worth it. Other wise give this serious thought before you jump in. Any questions please feel free to ask. I run a 200 acre small hay operation. It keeps off the street and out of money any way.